Gaddafi’s rule crumbling as rebels enter heart of Tripoli

By Thomas Erdbrink and Liz Sly, Updated: Monday, August 22, 7:51 AM

TRIPOLI — Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s four-decade-long rule over Libya was crumbling at breakneck speed Sunday as hundreds of rebel fighters swept toward the heart of Tripoli and dissidents said they had secured control of many parts of the capital.

With rebel leaders saying that Gaddafi’s compound was surrounded, that his son Saif al-Islam had been captured and that his presidential guard had surrendered, the six-month-old battle for control of Libya appeared to be hurtling toward a dramatic finale.

In an audio statement broadcast on state television late Sunday, Gaddafi made what came across as a desperate plea for support. “Go out and take your weapons,” the Libyan leader said in the brief broadcast. “All of you, there should be no fear.”

By late Sunday, rebel fighters had converged on the capital from four directions, and opposition flags were fluttering over buildings across the city. Thousands of people poured onto the streets in areas under rebel control to celebrate, stomping on posters of Gaddafi, setting off fireworks and honking horns, even in the symbolically significant Green Square in the heart of the city, previously the scene of near-daily pro-Gaddafi rallies.

With communications to the capital sporadic and some journalists confined to their hotel, reports of opposition gains within Tripoli could not be independently confirmed, and some experts cautioned that a tough urban battle may yet lie ahead between the lightly armed and untrained rebels and the elite government forces kept in reserve for the defense of the capital.

But reporters traveling with rebel forces said Gaddafi’s defenses were melting away faster than had been expected, with reports of entire units fleeing as rebels entered the capital from the south, east and west, and his supporters inside the city tearing off their uniforms, throwing down their weapons and attempting to blend into the population.

A Tripoli-based activist said the rebels had secured the seaport, where several hundred reinforcements for the opposition had arrived by boat, and were in the process of evicting Gaddafi loyalists from the Mitiga air base on the eastern edge of the city.

“The Gaddafi regime is clearly crumbling,” said a statement issued by NATO, whose five-month-old aerial bombing campaign, ostensibly launched to protect civilians, contributed enormously to the erosion of government defenses. A U.S. official in Washington who was monitoring the intelligence from Libya said that the situation in Tripoli was fluid but that Gaddafi and his hard-core loyalists did not appear likely to give up easily.

In the rebel capital, Benghazi, where huge crowds gathered to celebrate what they hoped was the imminent capture of Tripoli, Transitional National Council leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil announced that Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam had been captured.

There was no indication as to Gaddafi’s whereabouts, and he had issued a defiant speech earlier in the day in which he insisted he was in Tripoli and would not surrender. “We cannot go back until the last drop of our blood. We will defend the city. I am here with you,” he said in the audio statement, purportedly broadcast live. “Go on, go forward!”

But it appeared that his control had already unraveled as the rebels swept into the capital, encountering only pockets of resistance along the way.

After consolidating control of the strategic western town of Zawiyah on Thursday, the rebels pushed rapidly east throughout the day, capturing a major military base that was home to the Khamis Brigade, an elite force led by Khamis Gaddafi, one of the Libyan leader’s sons.

Exultant rebels seized weapons from the base and were seen carrying away boxes of brand-new Belgian munitions, as others raced by in trucks filled to the brim with other weaponry.

By nightfall, the rebel force had reached suburban Janzour, where witnesses said government forces had abandoned their posts earlier in the day. Residents took to the streets to cheer the rebels as they swept past in their pickups into the southern edges of the city.

At the same time, rebels advancing along the eastern coastal highway were reported to have linked up with opposition fighters in the strategically located eastern suburb of Tajura, long a stronghold of opposition to Gaddafi, effectively cutting off the capital.

In a late-night briefing for journalists confined to the Rixos hotel, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said that at least 1,300 people had been killed since noon, in addition to 930 the previous day, and blamed NATO for the bloodshed. The figures could not be independently confirmed, and though rebels said there had been many deaths, they did not believe the number was that high.

The lightly armed opponents, who have spent months quietly organizing for this moment, were within a mile and a half of Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound by Sunday night. They were hoping to launch an assault on the headquarters as soon as they link up with the rebel reinforcements arriving in the city, according to a rebel organizer who goes by the name Tony.

A rebel leader who asked to be identified as Haj said the Libyan independence flag, which has been adopted as the symbol of the opposition, was flying from numerous mosques, government buildings and a shopping mall in areas they had seized. He said fighters in the streets could be heard singing the rebel national anthem, the words “Oh, my country” floating through the streets amid the near-constant crackle of automatic fire.

Haj said he was confident that rebels could hold out at least another day until the rebel army arrives. “With the efforts of our revolutionary youths and our children, we will be able to make it through tonight,” he said.

He seemed unsure whether they would be able to last longer than that, however, and it was unclear what level of control the anti-Gaddafi forces exert in the neighborhoods they claim to have seized. The rebels said they have a good supply of Kalashnikovs, smuggled into the city covertly since the initial uprising was crushed in March, as well as 9mm pistols and homemade bombs. In Tajura, the opposition forces had seized a sizable quantity of weapons from a government unit that fled, according to Tony.

In Washington, the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “The opposition is gaining ground and putting more pressure on the regime each day. When this translates into a tipping point and what the endgame will look like is hard to determine. Gaddafi isn’t sure what he’s going to do from one moment to the next.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said officials there are turning their attention to post-Gaddafi Libya. “Gaddafi’s days are clearly numbered,” she said. “If Gaddafi cared about the Libyan people, he would step down now.”